PHILLIPS ACADEMY Andover, MA Ideation Space and Open Stacks

AnnBehaArchitects & COVID-19 ABA’s Tom Hotaling, Steve Gerrard, and Josh Aisenberg talked with current clients about concerns with and approaches to COVID-19 planning and design.

Photograph by © Chris Conti eight points for a pandemic CRANDALL PUBLIC LIBRARY Glens Falls, New York BA has worked with more than 35 libraries across the United States, and we are currently working with ten more: Open Stacks at Entry four public, four academic, and two museum libraries. Some of these projects are in design and some are in Aconstruction, and, despite this COVID-19 time of uncertainty, all ten are moving forward. These libraries share similar operational challenges created by the virus, but their leadership and staff are optimistic about their futures and even see some positive outcomes prompted by pandemic planning. A number of us at ABA have been gathering comments from current and past library clients.

1. air quality

• Mechanically increasing the amount of ventilation • Adding bipolar ionization (BPI) systems — Positive and specifically with more outdoor air — A shift that impacts negative ions help inactivate microorganisms in the air equipment design, as more heating and cooling and stream. Being studied now by conservators is the potential effect on the materiality of special collections and objects possibly humidification/de-humidification will be needed to exhibited or stored in libraries. compensate for increased outdoor air. • Rethinking displacement ventilation systems — Where air • Filtering of recirculated air — Using filters with much higher is supplied at the floor and returned at the ceiling. Systems MERV ratings. A collateral issue of stronger filters is air- that reverse this, supplying air at the top and returning at pressure drop, which will mean significant rightsizing of supply the bottom, will likely do a better job of dissipating and air vents. evacuating droplets from coughing and sneezing. • More and separate mechanical equipment zones — A • Adding ultraviolet radiation germicidal radiation (UVGI) more granular approach to separating and isolating specific systems — Air is passed by UV lamps to help inactivate areas or rooms of a building, making for a potentially safer microorganisms in the air stream. indoor environment.

Gaithersburg public library Gaithersburg, MD Children’s Library, Adult Collections, and Library Services

AnnBehaArchitects 3 2. Use and Occupancy Requirements staff working from home, almost always with very limited IT setups. Our public library clients have cited huge success CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY in terms of increased usership of their websites and the Cambridge, MA programming they offer. One library is constructing a studio Room • Introduction of new visitor restrictions — These include within its existing building — a professional setup with a distancing and limitations on the number of people that videographer, green screen, and full equipment support. can be accommodated in meeting rooms, classrooms, and Given the success of its virtual programming over the past other gathering spaces. Most libraries are following current few months, this will be a permanent installation available protocols, usually a percentage of room occupancy stipulated for the continued expansion of virtual programming in by existing Certificates of Occupancy. pandemic as well as hoped-for normal times.

• Creation of clear and open circulation paths — By means • digitization — Some libraries are pursuing of temporary barriers and signage with straightforward increased digitization of their collections, in the event print instructions and with one-way directional flow being collections will be out of bounds to users for extended optimal. Should the virus persist or be likely to return, it periods for potential contamination reasons. In addition to will be interesting to see if building codes are revised with purchasing more e- and audio books, some have added a second set of standards to be put in place, when needed, subscriptions to streaming academic videos and specific that require more square footage per person for specific discipline-specific databases. In preparation for a major room uses than current standards. If so, this may impact the renovation of its building, for which its entire collection had future design of new libraries and how space is allocated — to be relocated, one of our library clients had the collection perhaps leading to more separation of spaces into individual first shipped to an off-site digitizing service before being rooms and more space dedicated to corridors and hallways brought back and re-shelved in the renovated library. If a to allow for distancing and one-way travel. collection may not be accessible for an extended period, and if funding is available and U.S. Copyright compliance is met, this may be an ideal time to digitize significant portions of a collection.

• Curbside pickup and de-contamination — In addition to the staffing impact, there is the spatial impact to be considered of creating a dedicated place for three-day or longer decontamination of returned items. Some libraries are handling the spatial need by repurposing existing spaces for this temporary storage; others are considering renting trailers, relegating this service externally to their buildings.

• Special collections — A big drawback of the current situation is not being able to have people gather around the physical collections, an aspect of special collection libraries newberry library that makes them important and unique. What is the future Chicago, IL of special collection libraries with programming reliant on Exhibition Casework being in a room with a physical object? Adding new exhibit cases to securely display special collection materials that cannot be openly shared right now is an option, though not 3. possible new trends a perfect solution.

• Cafés and food service — Those libraries that are providing • In the short term — Far less programming where large these services are reevaluating them. Some may transition groups of people are involved, all in line with state and city to seasonal outdoor seating areas only. Indoors, self-serve recommendations for group gatherings. Some libraries are drink stations and unattended refreshments at events are limiting direct access to collections, meaning no browsing and unlikely. Public drinking fountains are being closed, though the consequent loss of the serendipity of finding unexpected safety modifications to these are being explored. books when searching for a specific one. But the expectation is that these will be temporary measures, with an eventual • Reversibility — For whatever physical changes are being return to open stacks that encourage browsing, as well as a made to library buildings specifically for COVID-19, we’re return to full library services and public programming. hearing that no library wants them to be permanent but rather reversible — that is, in the future they can be removed • New virtual programming — Over the past months there without any visible impact to architectural fabric. has been a lot of great programming created by library

AnnBehaArchitects 5 AnnBehaArchitects 6 4.e th impACT of interior layout 5. anticipated changes in interior fit out Springfield Technical Community College Springfield, MA Learning Commons • Buildings of more recent design — These may be better set • Wayfinding and signage — Libraries today, whether public up to deal with potential pandemic operation. They are the or private, offer patrons a wide range of options — access to product of stricter building codes and tend to have multiple print and digital collections, internet access, classes, events, entrances, multiple staircases and restrooms, and fewer and meetings. As well, libraries are places to study, to meet doors and other kinds of “pinch points” that challenge two- with others, or just take a break. Making the options clear way traffic and the needs of social distancing. Also, their right at building entrance, with straightforward and intuitive more open planning may allow for seating to be loosely wayfinding to all parts of the building, adds greatly to user distributed. comfort and confidence about using a library. However, quite often more modern libraries interweave This clarity is even more important in pandemic planning. Introducing visitors to the new rules of using a library building, stacks with reading areas, and if access to collections is going to COVID-safe procedures — traffic flow and room capacities to be off-limits, this may require temporary partitioning — is key, whether done through signage or by staff. Making around book stacks, to be accessible by staff only. temporary signage that clearly states the requirements but communicates the right welcoming tone and “isn’t in your • Library buildings of more traditional design — The tighter face” is a challenge. Digital signage offers flexibility; it can passageways and cellular layouts of rooms, especially in be changed immediately in response to changing guidelines, historic library buildings, may have the benefit of allowing building hours, traffic patterns within the building, etc. activities to be better separated and socially distanced from each other, albeit with fewer people in each room. However, • Furnishings — Social distancing may impact the amount of they do present corresponding challenges for social furniture currently in libraries. Fewer tables, desks, and chairs distancing and for group gatherings. will be allowed, at least for the present. Ideally, unneeded furniture will not be visibly cordoned off nor moved off-site, as Some libraries built in the 19th and early 20th centuries were the expectation is that it will be again be needed. In the longer designed for closed stacks — that is, a patron had to request term, this may prompt us as library designers to think more a book, and staff went to collect the book from stacks, which about creating designated furniture storage space or, more were always separate from reading areas. Many libraries in likely, specifying furnishings that are demountable and can the US retain vestiges of this arrangement, and for those be easily stacked and efficiently stored, to meet temporary that have converted to open stacks, they could easily be seating and social distancing recommendations. converted back to closed stacks on a temporary basis. Paging of books of course impacts library staff, putting increased Reduced numbers of chairs at tables and providing reading pressure on staff social distancing as well. nooks sized for only one person inherently promote social distancing. The traditional reading carrel — a table with front • Wireless — Some libraries are getting ready to and side partitions designed for one person — may see a provide wireless printing that will allow a patron to request renaissance. a library book or other information from home, send in a printing request, and then go to the library for collection. • Upholstery — We are been asked to revisit the upholstery These libraries will be repurposing existing space for this fabrics specified for the soft seating of one of our library new use, fitted out with the extended power, data, and projects under construction now. What was specified in ventilation needs that its equipment requires. Getting these February were wool fabrics; being considered now are vinyl sorts of building services into and through their buildings in a and other washable materials that facilitate cleaning, wiping seamless and aesthetic way — especially in historic buildings down, and sanitizing. And fabric companies are hard at work with highly crafted interiors — can be challenging. Installing developing new fabric lines response to COVID-19. new health check and other monitoring equipment in lobbies in an elegant fashion, for the short and possibly long term, will be a similar challenge.

• Restroom design — This is a major issue for libraries — and any multi-user building — and will likely result in more single- user restrooms versus the more space-efficient multi-user restroom found in most libraries. This will have a significant cost impact and spatial impact as well: More of a building’s usable square footage will need to be devoted to restroom use, at the expense of square footage for programs, services, and collections.

New England Conservatory Boston, MA Library Study Area AnnBehaArchitects 7 AnnBehaArchitects 8 6. covid-19 operations on construction sites BOWDOIN COLLEGE Hawthorne-Longfellow Library Special Collections Reading Room • Regulations — For our projects in construction now, the general contractors and construction managers have strict rules for accessing the building sites (most of these mandated by state and city authorities). They are carefully documenting the health of all workers and visitors to their sites – and this includes us as architects when we make site visits — and requiring protective masks, gloves, and clothing.

• Video — Reducing physical proximity of one construction worker to another on a job site can be challenging for many construction tasks. There are certainly opportunities to reduce contact between trades by leveraging Zoom and other video conference technology for meetings and inspections in lieu of being there in person. For architects and engineers who need to observe construction progress on building sites, much can be done this way without making in-person site visits.

7. virtual library services

• Research and development — There has been much new virtual library programming initiated and many experiments carried out since March 2020. Our library clients have all been emphasizing inquiry, asking their patrons what has worked, what has not, and what else they would suggest. Library patrons seem to have the time and interest right now to respond to user surveys.

• A library as two entities — There is the library that is a physical place, the building, and there is the library that exists outside of its four walls. Our clients are all asking how both can be comprehensively connected to their communities. There has and likely will be going forward an emphasis on technology; libraries are exploring how to best balance technology and the virtual with the physical place of a library where we can go in its front door, speak face-to-face with librarians, get their help with questions and research, read a newspaper, browse collections, take a class, and gather as communities of people.

• Flexibility — Assuming that libraries will become even more technology-intensive and acknowledging that technologies will change, this may take the form of allocating more space internally for equipment and also ensuring pathways for equipment connections are generous and accessible to allow for ease of future change. One of our public library clients is looking into what it would take to retrofit its building as a giant wireless hotspot, as many in its community do not have internet access.

AnnBehaArchitects 9 8. good forward New York, NY • REALM — Our library, archive, and museum clients are they’re looking ahead to a time when these measures Exhibition Hall following the findings of the REALM Project (Reopening won’t be needed; they want to ensure that any measure Archives, Libraries, and Museums: A COVID-19 Research implemented is reversible — that it can be installed in Project), which is exploring how long the virus lasts on specific such a way that it can be taken down without impacting surfaces — and best practices for handling different materials. original design. Test 2 results were recently published. • Future pandemics — For those library projects that are just • Reversibility — None of our clients has asked for specific starting, in very preliminary stages of design, we’re looking at permanent COVID-related design changes for projects how we can build into our designs practical accommodations currently under construction, other than the furnishings for the “what if” scenario of future pandemics that will likely fabric inquiry noted above. We are, however, working with again challenge building layout and building operation. This is them to conceptualize temporary measures to protect adding a new layer to library planning and design processes for staff and patrons as they re-open their doors. To a one, us and for librarians.

Newberry library Chicago, IL Bookstore and Café acn k owledgments

e’d like to thank among others the librarians and staff at Phillips Exeter Academy, John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, Olin Library at Washington University, Massachusetts Historical Society, Phillips Academy WAndover, Newberry Library, Peterborough Town Library in New Hampshire, Newark Public Library, and Jersey City Fee Public Library, as well as Altieri Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing Engineers.

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